Abstractions

People have trouble with abstractions. For instance, if I ask someone what the “next 9/11 is likely to be”, they are likely to think: “another terrorist attack”. People have a tendency to think in terms of the concrete and visible. Images like the twin towers are therefore powerful influencers in our thinking. But tomorrow is not just another yesterday. (Ever see “tomorrowland” at disneyland?). So the things that people should be looking out for ARE national disasters, but they’re just not the same ones we had previously.

The thing I am eying very very closely is the economy. It’s being knocked out of equilibrium by our wonderful federal reserve. And the shift is going to fundamentally change how we live our lives. I am (likely) to be a beneficiary of this, only because I know how to manage risk and have a cool head, but others won’t be so lucky. Most people will likely lose their retirement and there’s nothing they can do about it. It’s sad, really because it really didn’t have to be that way. I was staunchly against the Bush tax cuts to the wealthy (and the Obama continuation of them), the “quantitative easing”, and the flagrant currency manipilation.

You can still bet AGAINST the market though. Put your money on things like precious metals (the physical kind that you can put in your safe, the kind that isn’t sold by wall street) or things with intrinsic value to them.